Infinix Zero 5 Pro Review: Dependable but overpriced for what it offers
3 min read . Updated: 03 Jan 2018, 11:44 AM IST
PremiumInfinix's new smartphone is powerful and at par with rivals in terms of performance and display quality but it feels a bit overpriced
After testing waters with the affordable Note 4 in August 2017, Hong Kong-based smartphone company Infinix is now eying the mid-segment market in India. Its latest smartphone, Zero 5 Pro, is available on Flipkart.com at Rs19,999 and is competing against biggies such as the Xiaomi’s Mi Max 2 (Rs14,999) and Honor 7x (Rs15,999).
We take a look at the key highlights of the Zero 5 Pro and how they compare with rivals.
■ The Zero 5 Pro is a big-screen smartphone with a 6-inch screen flanked by wide bezels at the top and bottom. This increases the size, adds weight (197g) makes it unmanageable with one hand. The Mi Max 2 is even bigger with a 6.4-inch screen and weighs 210g.The Honor 7x is the best placed of the three with its thin-bezel design. It has a 5.9-inch screen, yet it weighs just 165g and is much more compact and handy to use.
■The back and side panels are made of lustreless metal, which feels good in the hand and looks at par with other good-looking smartphones under Rs20,000 such as the Mi Max 2 and Honor 7x. The dual camera module is highlighted separately with a glass strip similar to Huawei’s P10 smartphone.
■The 6-inch screen has a resolution of 1,920x1,080p, which is what you get on most smartphones at this price including the likes of Mi Max 2. It is a good-looking screen with brighter colours, which makes watching movies enjoyable.
■The Zero 5 Pro is a powerful smartphone with 6GB RAM and MediaTek’s Helio P25 octa-core processor clocking at 2.6GHz. Switching between apps felt smooth, multi-tasking didn’t slow it down and new games such as PES 2018 and Shadow Fight 3 ran without frame drops or heating up. We noticed a slight lag after reducing the size of app icons, but it was resolved after a firmware update.
■ The Infinix smartphone offers 128GB internal storage and it has a separate microSD card slot too, which means one can access the two SIM slots and the micro SD slot simultaneously. Both Mi Max 2 and Honor 7x offer 64GB internal storage and their microSD card slots are built on one of the SIM trays.
■The dual camera setup at the top includes a 12-megapixel camera with wide-angle sensor and a 13-megapixel camera with 2x optical zoom. Pictures taken during daytime look crisp, colours look accurate and darker areas look well-lit compared to Mi Max 2’s 12-megapixel camera. Honor 7x has a dual camera too but without 2x optical zoom. However, its picture quality looks at par with the Zero 5 Pro.
■The Infinix Zero 5 Pro packs a dependable 4,300mAh battery which can muster a day and half on a single charge. The Mi Max 2 has a slight edge as it offers a bigger 5,300mAh battery, which can comfortably last up to two days.
■The Infinix smartphone runs a one-year-old Android 7.0 (Nougat) with a custom UI called Hummingbird OS on top. It is a funky looking UI with colourful wallpapers and themes, but personalization options are limited compared to Xiaomi’s MIUI 9 or Huawei’s Emotion UI.
■ The Hummingbird OS has an app drawer on the lines of plain Android which shows all the apps on the smartphone by swiping up on the screen. The limitation here is that you can’t get rid of the default apps from the home screen. This kills the whole purpose of having a dual interface and gives the home screen a cluttered look.
■ Infinix Zero 5 Pro won’t disappoint if you are looking for a big-screen smartphone for watching movies and playing games. But if you are looking for a more streamlined UI, longer battery and bigger screen, go for Mi Max 2. It runs on Qualcomm’s equally capable Snapdragon 625 octa-core processor. If you are looking for something more compact and manageable with one hand, go for Honor 7x.
